Here is another driving tour to the northern edge of agricultural Saskatchewan; hope you'll enjoy reading this brief travelogue.

Shell Lake-the Battlefords is a combination of several trips Margaret and I took in the latter part of October. The route totals just over 300 miles. You will travel north then northwest from the prairie area of Saskatoon to the edge of the Mixed Forest ecozone. Between Saskatoon and Blaine Lake it is moderate to very flat. This is glacial outwash river and morainic plain. The plain was created from deposits dropped by glacial rivers that flowed from retreating ice sheets. These rivers flowed into glacial Lake Saskatoon they left boulder trails, coarse gravel and fine glacial lacrustine deposits. Over time the lacrustine and surfical moraine deposits developed into dark brown soils under the Mixed prairie grasslands and into black soils that were covered by fescue grassland prior to settlement. This area is dotted with dairy farms and croplands. The croplands are planted to canola, wheat, flax or leguminous forage. Leaving this plain you descend into the North Saskatchewan River valley, a fairly narrow valley and

one of historical trade routes to Fort Edmonton. Then it is up the northside of the valley and on to Blaine Lake. Now the drive becomes more fun - rolling hills! These are lateral or terminal moraine deposits; formation of these hills depended on the direction of the ice sheet movement. The general area known as the Thickwood Hills.

Surrounding Blaine Lake are a series of small lakes. Most of these "lakes" are large shallow saline wetlands, usually less than a meter in depth. The salinity can range from one half the density of sea water to three times its concentration. Unlike sea water which is predominately sodium chloride, the dominant salts here are a magnesium and sodium sulphate complex along with the salts of carbonate and chloride. The vegetation is varied from

filamentous alga Cladophora and sago pondweed which exist in open water areas to dense stands of three-square bulrush (Scripus americanus) along the edges. Upper beach vegetation is more complex with grass species such as foxtail, salt-meadow grass (Puccinellia), wedge grass, spike rush, and forbs such as Chenopodia, saline plantain, saline shootingstar, sourdock along with many others may occur. On the edges of some "lakes" between the water and the upper beach where past vegetation encrusted with salt occurs there exists a very low growing plant, dark green in summer turning to a bright crimson at maturity. This is Salicornia ruba (red samphire or glasswort) which according to locals can be made into excellent pickles or relish .

During fall migration when birds are moving to the southern wintering grounds on the Gulf coast or to South America up to fifteen species of shorebird may be found foraging in the shallows of these "lakes". Occasionally you get lucky and you may see both Sandhill and Whooping cranes. They have been found within 15 miles of Blaine Lake. Whooping cranes, excluding those in captivity, currently number 194. In the summer months several larger prairie shorebirds frequent these wetlands, including the Marbled Godwit, Willet and American Avocet

About 15 miles north of Blaine Lake we come to the Regional Park at Marten's Lake. In Saskatchewan the parks are classified as Regional, Provincial, and Federal. This is related to the appropriate jurisdiction - the services provided and the complexity of the parks increase from Regional to Federal parks. We drove into Marten's Lake Regional Park we saw more than 5000 small Canada geese, a few Mallards, diving ducks, and two Tundra swans with two cygnets on the Lake. In the parking lot was a cheeky Whitebreast Nuthatch. After a quick tour of the golf course we headed back to the highway. As with the previous ten miles the next 20 to Shell Lake was through hilly terrain. We saw two Bald Eagles using the up draughts off the escarpment of the Thickwood Hills to hunt for prey. Here the escarpment varies in height from 75 to about 200 feet. This escarpment is covered in aspen, only on a few trees are there leaves in their fall colours, the remainder having fallen. Amongst the aspen are small stands of white spruce and paper birch.

Many of the small wetlands that dot the roadside have rings of Carex and then Typha, both plants now show as a golden hue. Sprinkled amongst them is hardstem bulrush in its British racing green. It takes a heavy frost to begin to bleach the roundstem. This then allows the slits cut by damselflies during egg deposit to become visible as a series of fine dark strokes cascading down the stem. Through this segment we saw 10 ravens, numerous magpies and a Rough-legged Hawk.

Back in the hills to the west is a large PFRA Pasture (see the information at the end of this tour). One of my colleagues Dr. Glen Adams, spent a moderate amount of time in the Thickwood Pasture studying waterfowl nesting success in pastures where dense stands of woody vegetation were subjected to prescribed burns. On the day Margaret and I drove by this pasture the local ranchers were in round up mode - no cowboys on horses; they were riding riding quadrunners to herd the cattle. To the east in one adjacent pasture were memories of the prairies were like 135 years ago - home to bison!

Further to the east is Emerald Lake, a beautiful circular, clear prairie lake with white sandy beaches and an excellent camp ground.

Once we were north of the PFRA pasture the impact of agriculture ever present in Saskatchewan was evident again, the clearing of more trees and breaking of more land. Gone are most large stands of trees except around the wetlands - this agricultural activity lasted until we were within three miles of Shell Lake. Here you find a series of large lakes with cottages,and encounter more trees, aspen but with more spruce and birch present. Shell Lake is home to a thriving artist community, it is dominated by painters with a sprinkling of sculptors who work in bronze. For the golfers, the Shell Lake course is one of the more challenging courses in the province

On an earlier trip in the Healey I checked the gas gauge as we rolled through Shell Lake saying oh Spiritwood it is only another 15 miles or so - as I noticed Margaret peaking at the left side of the dash. As we head west from Shell Lake tree-ringed wetlands grace the highway edges and there is an increase in white spruce and birch with the odd stand of aspen -the Mixed Forest ecozone.

We rolled into Spiritwood to the Esso service station, it is typical of most small Saskatchewan towns - no premium gas. The Healey was surrounded and the questions began. At this point I was toying with the idea of driving west to a Provincial Park south of Glaslyn but for some reason I looked at the map and the name Rabbit Lake grabbed at me. The girl at the service station said the road was the "pits." Yes the first four miles of Highway 378 were a little rough. But the next 54 miles, well it was like being taken back to some memorable driving days - a great road with little traffic. It might not match some the the roads I drove in Nova Scotia or in western Maine or Vermont but it was an enjoyable drive.

On the west edge of the Thickwoods there are more agricultuel impacts. From the few pictures here you will observe that there are few groves of aspen usually on steep slopes. Looking south from Rabbit Lake towards North Battleford and the North Saskatchewan River valley there are a series of impressive hills - Blue Mountains - nice driving. Although Rabbit Lake was not on the highway we took a little side trip to visit this hamlet. We noted a sign about a tea room and we made a quick trip down the main street stopped traffic, kids were yelling and waving at us, fellows popped out of the grain elevator to stare - so I dropped into 2nd and let her bark a bit.

We drove into Whitkow, an almost deserted hamlet with both a Greek Orthodox and Roman Catholic church; interestingly they appear to be active. This is rolling country with clumps of aspen, small to large wetlands, and has roadway with excellent curves. Line of sight here varies from five miles to under a quarter of a mile - very hilly landscape.

South and west of Whitkow, the trees are becoming sparse. After 15 miles we're back into 99 percent farmland and are on the upper benches of the North Saskatchewan River. We started a descent towards North Battleford. We stopped to top up with premium to dilute the 87 octane regular. One feature not to be missed on a visit to North Battleford is the art gallery which celebrates Alan Sapp, the first great native painter. Once we topped up the Healey we were off into the river valley road over the old iron bridges, up the west bank of the North Saskatchewan into old Battleford (the headquarters of Northwest Territories council from 1878-1883; part of this area became the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan), and on to Fort Battleford. Fort Battleford is a Federal Parks Historic Site.

We've decided to avoid the divided highway from the Battlefords into Saskatoon. We took the road due south of old Battleford to Cando then southeast to Biggar and east to Saskatoon. The first segment up out of the North Saskatchewan River valley passes through the Red Pheasant Indian reserve. The hills here are covered with small aspen which show a combination of fire impacts and the influence of the stony and sandy soils. These trees are a third of their normal height, highly branched and bent. I am familiar with several othere sites to the north and east where the aspen show similar structural deformity.

The Eagle Hills, more terminal moraine deposits, are found south and east of Cando - the farmers have left many very large tracts of aspen forest which is interspersed with excellent stands of Mixed Prairie. The Mixed Prairie is dominated by species of wheat and spear grasses. East of Cando some eight miles there is an interesting stand of white spruce which measures a mile by one half a mile. This was planted in the late 1910's by the forerunner of Forestry Canada. The idea of the planation was to provide a wood source to farmers for heating and cooking as they had cleared the land and depleted the wood resource. There are several other tree planations across the prairies planted for the same reason. Several years after the planations were initiated coal was discovered in southeastern Saskatchewan and more mines were opened in the Rockies offsetting the need for wood.

The bird community in the Eagle Hills area is complex. In my winter counts the highligths are Pileated woodpecker, Northern shrike, Brown Creeper, Townsend's Solitaire, Northern Goshawk, Bald and Golden eagles and Short-eared Owl. A colleague, Brian Johns, obtained some interesting summer observations within the larger aspen stands of this area they include Connecticut Warbler, Common Yellow Throat, Ovenbird, Veery and Rufous-sided Towhee. This is an excellent area if you are a birder to stop and to explore.

The light was starting to drop as we turned east at Biggar and headed for Saskatoon. The sign at Biggar always makes me smile " New York is big but this is Biggar".